Very happy to update you all.
We have a whole baby.
I'm a mom.
Karl and I are super excited and happy and overjoyed that we have a child.
A healthy child, a happy child, and as far as we can tell a pretty smart one.
So we're going to tell you all we've been up to with our kid so let's go back to where
it all started.
So on January 15th I woke up around I don't know 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.
I had these weird sensations going on in my butt.
Yeah.
I kind of figure maybe this is it, maybe this is what a contraction feels like.
It was really confusing.
I spent hours researching what a contraction feels like and not one person described it
as a feeling like you need to poop.
Every single time I had a contraction it felt like I needed to go sit on the toilet and
take a giant poop.
That is the best way to describe it and noone every told me that would be what it would
feel like.
However I don't know if that was normal because there are such things as back contractions
so it's possible I maybe had a certain type of contraction that not everybody has.
But all i know is when I posted about it on my Instagram stories, I got a lot of messages
from women that said oh my god, that's exactly how my contractions felt like, like i needed
to poop.
So let me know in the comments below if you've had a baby and that's what contractions felt
like for you.
I'm really curious.
So I started having these weird pooping sensations, and i figured yep it's time.
Not time to use the bathroom but time to have a baby.
I have this really intense back pain and it's just been happening every 5-6 minutes.
It's happening again.
Ohh.
It's like right here.
So I just labored at home for a little while just kind of like relaxed and enjoyed my last
few hours being at home as a person without a child.
I just knew that oh my god, the next time i come back home, it's going to be with a
kid in my hand.
I labored at home.
It wasn't too bad, the contractions weren't that bad.
It was bearable.
It wasn't unbearable.
Like some people described it.
but it was still early.
So once I got to a point where I was like okay i think maybe we should get to the hospital
now, we headed to the hospital, I got checked in and I continued to labor in a hospital
setting.
I gave them my birth plan.
I wanted to do a natural birth, no epidural no medication.
Nothing and my plan was to do deep breathing exercises throughout all of it and I even
talked to my husband before it, I talked to Karl, I told him what to do if I feel tempted
to get an epidural do what you can to talk me out of it.
I trust your judgment, if I'm looking like I'm in a lot of pain and you think I should
get an epidural then let me go through with it but if not, I really really ideally want
to birth this child unmedicated.
So I breathed my way through labor for hours.
I really thought that I was going to get lucky and I was going to push this baby out, maybe
labor for a couple hours, and then bam ready to push and then be out but it just rarely
happens like that with your first child, it didn't happen like that for me.
I labored for several hours and then finally finally the nurse came in after several times
checking on me and she just kept saying you're handling this really well for somebody that
is not on medication.
I didn't scream, I didn't cuss, it wasn't like it was in the movies, I was a little
confused I thought it was going to be way more painful than this.
I don't know if maybe because of the type of contractions I was having, the poop feeling
contractions, maybe they don't hurt as bad as abdominal contractions.
More than anything it was just exhausting and it was painful yes not going to lie but
it wasn't as painful as I thought it was going to be based on what I saw in movies and based
on what other people described it as and I think because of that, I had a fairly pleasant
experience.
So finally the nurse comes in and says okay you've been laboring for awhile now let's
try some different things.
Let's do some squats, let's get you moving, let's try to get this baby down and out anyway
we can.
So i did that for awhile just moved around, got things moving, and finally finally she
said okay i think we're ready to start pushing.
The pushing I'm not going to lie that part was very exhausting.
I felt like I was pushing forever.
It was just like push and then break, push and then break.
And it just went on and on like that until the doctor came in the room and the doctor
wasn't playing no games.
He as like I'm not going to be gentle on you, he came in he was like we're getting this
baby out we're about to deliver this.
Whatever method he chose to help me push out my baby it worked.
He didn't give me any breaks he was like you're not resting, let's go.
And they just kept saying oh my god, I see lots of hair and sure enough our baby has
a lot of hair and finally he came out.
Head full of hair, crying and peeing everywhere, he peed all over everyone even the doctor
was shocked he was like oh my god he's peeing a lit.
It's been a long journey tp get here, I'm so glad I did it naturally, no medication.
So I thought everything was going to be all good, but then I tried to get out of bed and
realized oh my god i can't walk.
I thought the hard part was going to be childbirth and then after that everything was going to
be all hunkydory.
Nah.Once I pushed that baby out I don't know what was going on there must have been some
kind of gaping wound in my stomach that replaced my baby because I for real couldn't walk.
Over the next couple of days being in the hospital, my husband had to help me go to
the bathroom, he had to help me change my pads, it was intense, he had to help me with
everything.
Everyone had to help me breastfeed.
It was very hard to move.
They had to lift me up, out of my bed, prop me up because I coudn't do it myself, I was
having a really hard time moving on my own, that's how bad I felt after wards.
My postpartum recovery was very difficult.
But thankfully i had home, I could not imagine doing that alone, I'm so thankful I had my
husband there in the hospital to help me and my mom and mu husband both at my house to
help once I got home.
So finally once I got home, still had trouble walking, but had a healthy baby so couldn't
complain.
But everyday it got better and better, easier and easier, and finally after about a week
I was able to at least walk again.
It was still difficult, but at least I could move my body.
My stomach still hurt my abdomen was still really really sore and it was still difficult
to move it still felt like there was a big wound in there but after I was able to walk.
As the weeks went by it got easier and easier, so after a week I could walk, after 2 weeks
I could go outside and walk around the neighborhood, after 3 weeks I was able to do a lot more
and resume mostly normal activities, but it took maybe a full 6 weeks before I could say
yeah I think I could go for a run.
Like definitely after the first month, I feel good enough to go outside for a jog if i wanted
to but I didn't, I actually gave myself the full 6-8 weeks to recover before I resumed
any physical activities like exercising.
It's been a wild ride.
Our son's name is Beyond.
And one of the most common questions is why did we name him Beyond?
So basically we wanted to pick a name that didn't necessarily mean anything to anybody
else but meant something to us.
Beyond represents our transcendence of us, our love, our dreams, our aspirations, we
basically want him to have a better upbringing and more opportunities overall beyond anything
that was afforded to us.
He's a culmination and a continuation of us both.
So that's why we named him Beyond.
It's a very intentional name.
Almost like an affirmation of what we want him to experience in life.
A better life than anything we've ever had.
that is our wish for our son.
He's super adorable.
For someone who grew up not wanting kids I'm really shocked at how much I've been able
to get ahold of this whole motherhood thing.
It was very hard at first because I was recovering but once I recovered and I could really start
bonding with him, gosh it was just a very very beautiful thing for me.
For somebody that started out not wanting kids and now I'm a whole mom it's true what
they say to people who don't want kids, people always say it's going to be different when
it's your kid and it's true, it is different.
I have a kid and I cannot picture my life without him.
The only thing I'll say that really frustrated me about motherhood is there's just a lack
of transparency amongst mothers about how to take care of yourself.
I feel like there's s much education out there about how to slay pregnancy, how to slay your
pregnancy, how to raise a newborn, but there's not a whole lot of education about how to
take care of yourself as a mother.
All the things that kind of arise when you're a new mom when it comes to postpartum recovery
or even injuries that can happen like I injured my hand.
I got a splint custom molded for my tendonitis.
Tendonitis can sometimes happen well actually it happens alot to new moms from picking up
their baby and breastfeeding a lot.
So I have to wear this for 2 weeks!
So I had to start using a breastfeeding pillow, I had to start picking him up more strategically,
and these are things I wasn't really told and apparently a lot of women go though issues
like this and silently suffer because nobody ever really talks about it but I really hope
that changes.
I talk about it a lot on Instagram because I want more women to feel comfortable talking
about things like this.
And my mom was so helpful, my mom was helping me with my recovery a lot.
She was making me fruit and vegetable smoothies, she was making me lactation teas, she was
just such a big help.
For real real, I cannot emphasize enough just how important it is to have a good support
team behind you if you're luck enough to have that utilize it.
Beyond is doing great.
We've been really big on focusing on his development and buying him little toys and different things
to help keep him engaged and it's been really cool watching him grow and watching his mind
work and just being a parent.
We're having fun with it.
It's not anything like what I thought it was going to be.
My whole life I thought it was going to be this horrible, horrific, invasive thing and
it hasn't been that.
It's literally been a joy.
I can't express enough just how grateful I am that I decided to do this.
I'm so happy I had my son he's the best thing that has ever happened to me and I don't even
know who this person is.
I never expected to be a mom and now I'm a mom.
I hear him crying he just woke up so I'm going to go get him.
And yea I just wanted to update you guys and let you guys know what was going on in our
lives that's why I took a long break from YouTube, Iw as pregnant, and then had the
baby and have just been really focused on momming.
Oh and one more thing I'm really excited about the next few videos I'm going to put out,
I want to do a smart nursery tour even though technically he's not up here, he sleeps with
us in our bedroom, make sure you stay tuned for that.
As always, like, comment subscribe, do all the things and yeah kay crying baby gotta
go bye.